Dream about perfect garden

ROOTS OF WISDOM PAUL ROGERS

Paul Rogers ROOTS OF WISDOM

It is time for all gardeners to settle into a comfortable chair with a favorite beverage close at hand. Dream time has arrived. Let your mind roam in realms of fruit trees laden with ripe fruit, rows of crisp vegetables with nary a weed in sight and bountiful bouquets of perfectly grown flowers.

Your travel ticket is to be found in the wealth of gardening catalogs that have been accumulating over the past month or so. Allow me to function as your guide into this enchanted land, where we set aside reality for a time and just dream gardening.

The first catalog to set us on our way is John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds (23 Tulip Drive, Bantam, CT, 06750-0638, phone (860) 567-6086, www.kitchengardenseeds.com). As you spend time in their pages, take notice of the introductory paragraph to each vegetable, where cultural directions are offered, the average lifespan of the seed is given, and suggestions as to the harvest and use is provided.

Focus on the more unusual vegetable offerings. For example, yellow Finn, all-blue, red Ruby, Russian Banana, French gourmet, and Bintje Dutch potatoes are each priced at less than $12 for a package of 10 mini tubers. Perhaps for you, this will be the year of the potato or lettuce, bean or cucumber!

Drifting right along but continuing to stay within the vegetable portion of dream-land, we use The Cook’s Garden (P.O. Box C5030, Warminster, PA 18974, phone (800) 457-9703, www.cooksgarden.com), a beautifully illustrated 112-page glossy catalog. Not only seeds are offered but a selection of reasonably priced started plants are also available.

The number of listings for each vegetable is more limited than what is offered by some other seed houses, but the choices are more than adequate. Consider cucumbers, for example: There is a Brown Russian, a “lunch box” cuke from Germany, two Asian types, straight eight that was an All-American winner years ago, and Lemon, which is a yellow, round heirloom type — all of which constitutes a respectable listing in any seed catalog.

The Pinetree Garden Seeds and Accessories catalog (P.O. Box 300, New Gloucester, Maine 04260, phone (207) 926-3400, superseeds.com) broadens its offerings to include books and garden products. To further illustrate the international scope of the seed industry, look on page 51 to find the “foreign vegetable index,” which lists by category — French, Italian, Continental, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern seeds.

Do you dare read that list and not order, at least some Yard Long Red Noodle Beans or a package of Rattail Radish seed?

End today’s dream state visit at the Vermont Bean Seed Co. (334 W. Stroud St., Randolph, WI, 53956, phone (800) 349-1071, www.vermontbean.com). As you would expect, there are pages of bean offerings, but also carrots, cauliflower, cabbages, corn, and kale lead you to grafted tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Why grafted plants? Read why on page 27 and make your own decision.